The Bangladesh Rural Electrification Board (BREB) has ordered the stand release of six more officials and employees of the Palli Bidyut Samity, following demands for reinstatement of sacked officials and an apology for power outages.
The stand release was confirmed in an office order issued by BREB on Sunday.
Earlier, on Saturday, anti-discrimination officers and employees of the Palli Bidyut Samity held a press conference at Dhaka Reporters Unity, expressing their grievances.
As per the office order, Abdullah Al Mamun, assistant general manager of Chittagong Palli Bidyut Samity-1, has been transferred to the Rajshahi Zone Supervising Engineer's Office. Md Abdullah Al Hadi, deputy general manager of Narsingdi Palli Bidyut Samity-1, has been moved to the Chittagong Zone. Junior Engineer Shariful Islam Bhuiyan from Narsingdi Palli Bidyut Samity-2 is now posted at Cox's Bazar Executive Engineering Office. Junior Engineer Tamjidul Islam from Dhaka Palli Bidyut Samity-1 has been transferred to the Rangpur Superintending Engineer’s office. Shah Md Razzakur Rahman, general manager of Naogaon Palli Bidyut Samity-2, has been assigned to the Chittagong Zone, while Sheikh Rahmat Ullah Nazir, waring inspector of Gazipur Palli Bidyut Samity-1, has been sent to Nilphamari Executive Engineer's Office.
This development follows the dismissal of 20 general managers (GMs), deputy general managers (DGMs), and assistant general managers (AGMs) on Wednesday, after multiple allegations including non-compliance with instructions and violations of disciplinary rules.
Additionally, a case has been filed against 10 officials.
In protest, anti-discrimination rural electricity coordinators announced a "complete shutdown" of 45,000 officers and employees of the association.
They warned of a long march to Dhaka if the case against the officials was not withdrawn within 24 hours by October 17. They also called for the removal of the BREB chairman.
On Thursday morning, officials and employees of the Palli Bidyut Samity halted electricity supply to 61 associations in various districts, causing significant disruption and hardship for millions of customers.
Later that afternoon, several protest leaders, including Engineer Rajan Kumar Das (AGM), Engineer Asaduzzaman Bhuiyan (DGM), and Deepak Kumar Singh (DGM), were detained from different parts of the country.
Sedition cases were filed against several individuals involved in the protest.
Following a meeting between Palli Bidyut Samity officials and the Special Assistant to the Chief Advisor Mahfuz Alam, the protest program was postponed until Sunday.
At the press conference on Saturday, the officials demanded the reinstatement of all dismissed employees, as well as an apology for the electricity shutdown.